Mucilin?

[Bamboozle]

If you fish bamboo, there's a good chance your rod has come in contact with silicone some time in its life other than from a green Mucilin can. Gink, Dap, PooGoo, many fly line treatments and other fly fishing goos contain silicone.

Do you know that some sun screens, moisturizers, mosquito repellent lotions, furniture wax and even some paper towel brands also contain silicone? Waxes and oil can also cause problems with fish-eye when refinishing...

...if you really want to take things to extremes.

A required refinishing job on a newer bamboo rod in your lifetime is a pretty unlikely thing unless you abuse it. I have some 30 year old Leonard rods that look as good as the day I bought them with no foreseeable need for refinishing, at least in my lifetime. Obviously if you have really old rods in marginal condition there may be some reason for concern, but as long as you don't polish the rod every day with a silicone based wax, you aren't really exposing the rod to much silicone by greasing a leader once in awhile.

I for one don't sweat the silicone thing with bamboo, never have and never will since it's out there in so many other products besides the stuff I like to use on my leaders. I bought my bamboo rods to fish, not to anguish over. If I need to get them refinished at some point in time, I expect there will be someone out there who can do it successfully.

As always, YMMV.

[CM_Stewart]

My dad was a paint chemist, and when I was growing up he had a small business making paint, varnish, paint remover, etc. There is a product that can be added to varnish that will remove the fish eyes caused by silicone. Not surprisingly, it's called Fish Eye Remover. What is a surprise, though, is that it is also a silicone.

When his fishing buddy passed away, my dad was given his bamboo rod (Phillipson Premium), which he gave to me (my dad kept his glass Phillipson). We always used Green Mucilin.

[aged_sage]

Silicone should have absolutely no adverse effect on a dried finish on a bamboo rod. It is silicone on the blank prior to applying a new finish, or coming into contact with a fresh wet finish, that causes the problems. It causes numerous little "moon craters" in the dried finish that are "lovingly" known as "fisheyes". Sometime back, I inherited a tin of "BARBOURThornproof Dressing" used to keep Barbour (English) coats waterproof, and have been using it with great success on my furled leaders. I have lately been toying with using beeswax. The BarBour tin is the size of a shoepolish tin and too big to lug around in a vest, whereas, beeswax can be obtained in fabric shops every where, comes in a small convenient sized cake, and is cheap.

[CO_Flyfisher]

I also like the Payette paste made by Loon (Loon makes some pretty wonderful products in general).

I have found that when fishing dries (esp. small ones) in faster water or in back-eddies behind medium to large rocks, that if my thread leader sinks below the surface I cannot mend the line easy enough to prevent the fly from moving when I do so.

That was enough last weekend to make me miss a possible hook-up. I had a fly sitting right behind a rock in some still water with water rushing past on both sides. I had to mend the line when the leader fully extended in the current, but with the leader slightly underwater, the fly moved just as a fish came to look at it and he turned away. However, it is almost effortless to mend the line when the leader is floating high on the water, and it is easy to do so without moving the fly.

[CO_Flyfisher]

I would like to add that the Loon Payette is not the easiest stuff to find... (locally anyway) But, it is GREAT stuff!!!

[Cold]

Okay, from the other side of the red vs green coin...what are the advantages of using the green, silicone based mucilin as opposed to the red? I'd imagine if the non-silicone one was superior in every way, then the green one wouldn't exist...

[Jeremy]

As mentioned by Fish'n50, Albolene is what I use all the time. Cheap and it's identical to most floatants...except for the price. Alby is dirt cheap!

The only "drawback" is that it makes my leader float for around 3 days, solid! Really...

Jeremy.

[Gemrod]

I don't use bamboo. So for a furled leader floatant.....I spray an aerosol can into a container to get enough liquid. Then soak the leader overnight and let hang out to dry.

I use a can of "Silicone Water-Guard" from Wal-Mart.

Cap is orange with yellow sticker on top that says "Scores 100 with single application. Highest performance possible"

Just telling you what the can says in case you go looking for it.